City Council Begins Budget Talks

Agreements and disagreements took place Wednesday at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center as city council kicked off the fiscal year 2018 budget discussions.

The full day goal setting session allowed council to discuss items they’d like to tackle citywide and in individual districts.

District 5 Councilwoman Shirley Gonzales brought up one of the most talked about items regarding city employees.

“I forgot to mention in my priorities the living wage and the move to 15. That was I think one of the ways that we got to the income segregation and poverty issues so I just wanted to throw that in there,” Gonzales said.

As the meeting wrapped up the following priorities were set: public safety, transportation, infrastructure and neighborhood improvements.

District 6 Councilman Greg Brockhouse believes a significant amount of money should go to VIA Metropolitan Transit and even mentioned how he once got lost attempting to use the public transportation system.

District 4 Councilman Rey Saldana said he’s going to ask staff to come up to solutions to the speeding issues across the city.

A final budget vote won’t take place until September, following many budget-related meetings.